Nope. But I can see it replacing formula, kind of. Foils are not cheap, but cheaper than huge carbon fin/mast/boom. With the foil you get formula angles with midsize rig but you have the same-more so with foil- shallow water problems.

I don't yet see an application for wave sailing, freestyle, bump-n-jump, slalom, long board or freeride.

I was talking to a kiteboarder about foils, where they make more sense because there are fewer points of balance. His opinion was that they have their place, but that they'll never be mainstream because they take away a lot of the practical advantages of kiting. They're big, so you can't just grab your gear and head to Hawaii, they need deep water, and the have a long, slow learning curve. Of course, that sounds a lot like windsurfing. But like I said, having the added point of balance of the mast foot seems to be a deal breaker for the most part.

No feel, might never replace windsurfing, except for super experienced windsurfer's or newbies who want to try something different.
Why do you windsurf? I like the feel of speed, jumping, on the verge of holding it together, the almost out of control skipping over the water thing.
Foils will soon be as fast as windsurfing, or faster, but it will never have the feel through your whole body.

I like the feel of speed, jumping, on the verge of holding it together, the almost out of control skipping over the water thing...

and the rights and lefts. I look at a foil going by on a great, windy, bumpy day, all smooth as silk 2-3 feet above the fun stuff (until he snags a swell and endos into a faceplant aka the Peconic Puffin Gecko), and ask myself, "Why would someone want to eliminate the very reason we drove this far?" It seems sort of like bolting a Miata or Subaru BRZ to an RV frame.

Two of us in north Texas are learning to windfoil. We've had our hydrofoils for 5 or 6 weeks. I bought the Horue Vini plus the Horue Tiny 120 board. The board comes from the Flikka factory and is the best build quality carbon board I've ever had. The board is also windsurfable and comes with a 44cm Select slalom fin. My friend bought only the hydrofoil from Horue and he is running it on a Hypersonic 133. Why did we get them? 1. We wanted another light wind option for summer sailing. We are hoping that instead of rigging 9.5 to 12.5 to windsurf we can rig 7.5 and windfoil. 2. We wanted a new challenge and boy did we get a challenge! I've been out three days on mine and my buddy has been out six days. My comment after day one was "it's like riding a unicycle on a basketball." The balance bubble is very small, my reaction time was late for every correction and I crashed a good 12 times, at least 4 crashes were spectacular. Day two, only 3 crashes. Day three, no crashes. It gets up on the foil easily enough but keeping it there is like the rodeo, if I can go more than eight seconds without something bad happening that's a great ride. I get better every outing but so far I've only got one foot in the strap and I'm not in the harness line. It is very tiring just like the first few outings when I was learning to windsurf. I'll try to update as I progress. It's super windy now so most of my time will be spent on conventional gear for the next several weeks.

the comment about the unicycle is an important one
i never understood why there was only one foil
when i saw this, i felt they were onto a more viable solution
again - cannot talk about $$$ cuz costs make no sense

I also say "no", foils have been used in windsurfing for 20 years at least already, and it still hasn't captured the imagination of the herd, just a few with more money to spend on something new.
You will always need clean water and you can't ride a wave to the shore for obvious reasons, for the ocean sailors.
But it is now spreading into the realm of SUP'ing, as Kai shows here, the boards are super stable until you catch a wave, then it becomes a whole different program.

The Horue option is the least expensive of these three and the only one that allows you to buy only the foil and put it in your own board.

I think there was a comment earlier in this thread about foiling possibly not providing that dynamic windsurf sensation that we all crave. Trust me, it will still scratch that itch. It's different but you're still having to make countless adjustments constantly to make it work. The board lifts up, all the slapping noise goes silent and you have the sensation of flying. I can't wait until I figure the rest of it out.

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